Obviously your goal should be, as ever, to “catch ‘em all,” but given that a portion of the Pokémon GO playerbase may be pretty unfamiliar with the Ruby/Sapphire Gen 3 era of the game, I wanted to talk about who you might want to focus on in particular, or how you can know if you’ve really landed a rare/cool one.

Not all of this list is about power. Some will be about rarity in the current state of GO as well, so take that into consideration. A lot of this may be personal preference, but I hope you find this breakdown somewhat useful.

Treecko/Torchic/Mudkip

Pokemon GONiantic

We’ll start off easy. These are the three Gen 3 starters, in case you didn’t know, grass, fire and water types, as ever. If you see these guys in the wild you might not know what to make of them if you haven’t played Ruby/Sapphire, but know they are the equivalent of Bulbasaur/Charmander/Squirtle, and you want to amass as many of them as possible to evolve their powerful final forms, Sceptile, Blaziken (my personal favorite) and Swampert.

Ralts/Kirlia/Gardevoir

Pokemon GONiantic

One of the most popular and powerful Pokémon in Gen 3, Gardevoir is a third stage evolution that you’re going to want to work toward. She is psychic/fairy type, and she’s going to be useful in a whole lot of different situations in GO, from gym battling to raids. If you see little Ralts running around, you might not make much of them, but they are hugely important as they’ll help you work your way toward a must-have Gardevoir.

Slakoth/Vigoroth/Slaking

Pokemon GONiantic

Just a boring old normal type, but Slaking actually has the highest CP in the game right now, if that’s something you like chasing. He’s an interesting case. When you evolve a Slaking he actually has a fast move that does no damage, Yawn, and can only use his charge-up move which packs a punch. If you can get a high IV Slaking and pump him up, I doubt anything else in your roster will come close in terms of CP.

Makuhita/Hariyama

Pokemon GONiantic

I’m not sure that Hariyama will end up being quite as good as Machamp, but he’s an awesome-looking fighting type Pokémon, and pretty strong. I’d work on getting one if you want another option to take down all the Blisseys (and probably now Slakings) guarding gyms around your area.

Zangoose/Plusle and Seviper/Minun

Pokemon GONiantic

These two make the list not because of their power level, but because once again, Pokémon GO has decided it’s a good idea to have regional exclusives with the arrival of Gen 3. This time it’s a bit different, however. North, South and Central America have Zangoose and Plusle as their exclusives, while the rest of the world has Seviper and Minun. So travel anywhere across an ocean really, and you should be able to get the other two. Just know what you’re on the lookout for once you get there.

Mawile/Absol

Pokemon GONiantic

Not only are these two of the best looking Gen 3 Pokémon out there in my opinion, but as newly minted raid bosses, Niantic has also made them two of the only shiny Gen 3 Pokémon as well. They join the five Halloween Gen 3 Ghosts as the only Gen 3 shinies released, though that will undoubtedly change down the line. So not only do you want to snag them in raid battles, but you’ll want to farm multiples of them until you finally land that shiny version. Good luck!

That’s all I’ve got for now. Obviously there are a lot of other cool Pokémon to catch (Gen 3 creature design is really good and arguably better than Gen 1 or Gen 2), but these are the ones I would be on the lookout for the most. Happy hunting! This is a very fun update to be sure.